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McCain Denver Office Evacuated

By Elisabeth Bumiller August 21, 2008 6:37 pmAugust 21, 2008 6:37 pm

UPDATED | Friday, 11:50 a.m. Senator John McCain’s Denver campaign office received an envelope with white powder on Thursday and has been evacuated, Tucker Bounds, a McCain campaign spokesman said. Mr. Bounds said that campaign staff members were being examined by medical personnel.

Mr. Bounds did not know if the envelope contained anthrax or was a hoax, and said that it was being investigated.
“The situation is fluid,” he said.

Dan Frosch, reporting in Denver, said the investigation was ongoing as of 7:25 p.m.

According to Malcolm Wiley, a Secret Service spokesman, a staff member at Senator McCain’s Colorado campaign headquarters near Denver opened up an envelope containing an unspecified threat and a white powder substance.

Mr. McCain’s campaign office was evacuated, Mr. Wiley said, and federal and local authorities were soon at the scene.

The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office released a statement saying that several people who may have been exposed to the substance were being examined by medical personnel. HAZMAT personnel were also on hand and were examining the white substance from the envelope, the statement said.

On Friday morning, the McCain campaign issued the following statement:

At approximately 3pm Mountain time, a McCain staff member in Denver opened an envelope that contained a threatening letter and an unknown white powder. As a precautionary measure, the campaign office was immediately closed and staff was sent to a local hospital for medical evaluation. Local authorities as well as the FBI and United States Secret Service have investigated the scene and determined that the substance poses no threat.

Also yesterday afternoon, a similar letter was found in the campaign’s Manchester, New Hampshire office. After closing that office, the Manchester Police Department determined that there was no threat.

Senator and Mrs. McCain thank the local and federal authorities for their swift response and will continue to monitor the situation closely.

–McCain 2008 Communications Director Jill Hazelbaker

According to Dan Frosch, the Arapahoe County Sherriff’s Office said the powder found at the Colorado campaign headquarters is not dangerous.

Police have also traced the envelope that contained the substance, as well as a generic threat, to an inmate at a Colorado detention center, Marc Harold Ramsey. Mr. Ramsey, 39, has been jailed since September of last year on charges of felony menacing, harassment and second degree assault on a police officer.

Five people were taken to area hospitals for precaution after the envelope was opened by a staffer.

Ed Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service, described Mr. Ramsey as a “prolific letter writer.”

I think all this negative stuff needs to stop because it feeds into the evil/ lunatic side of the public. Feeds sick paranoia and hate. Both candidates need to rise above and get back to the issues of the people they will serve. They both seem way too selfserving at this point.

Obama is causing so much divisiveness and hate. His evangelical tone and call to arms is causing this evil to occur. Many times I have asked you Obama supporters to stop the hate. Is this what you really want? Is the how the Obama supporters expect to win an election?

This is beyond a hoax. the person or persons who did this if caught should be charged with a serious offence. This can not be tolerated by either side America has had enough of these fools a long term in prison may discourage this type of stupidity

Hmmmmm…. anthrax scares tend to be the handiwork of right-wing extremists. Was this some desperate attempt to take the focus off of McCain’s fatal blunder of saying that he needed to ask his staff to tell him how many homes he owns?

There’s bad news for the people who did that if that was their intention….. McCain is not going to wash the taste of his $520 calfskin Ferragamo loafers out of his mouth that easily. This is one time that MCain’s foot-in-the-mouth cluelessness is going to stick around to haunt him for a long time to come.

We are all becoming far too jaded, far too indifferent to the potential and/or real violence that surrounds us. What if this is real and not a hoax? I am not of the Bush-be-frightened mindset — but I am also not going to pretend that it isn’t possible for someone to take a hit a McCain. I agree with Diana, #2 — stop the violence…and the indifference.

Obama is causing so much divisiveness and hate. His evangelical tone and call to arms is causing this evil to occur. Many times I have asked you Obama supporters to stop the hate. Is this what you really want? Is the how the Obama supporters expect to win an election?
Lyle Vos
___

It is you who is spreading hateful and mean spirited words. Plus, you don’t make any sense.
Why would anyone who supports Obama want to deliver such a letter just hours before Obama’s announcing his VP?
This distraction – and I hope it is just that- has a peculiar timing.

Lyle Vos, how can you possibly call for a stop to hate? Your posts are some of the most deliberately devisive and hateful on this board. I’m so glad that not all republicans are like you, because your embarrassing rhetoric does nothing but make you look like a confused and angry simpleton.

As for the white powder, I wouldn’t put it past McCain’s Rovian tactics to stage this one. McCain is having a really bad day, and I think he needs some sympathy. Time to focus on those “radical and militant” liberals. Meanwhile the Bush administration ships all our resources out of the country, gets filthy rich, and leaves us with nothing.

Obama is causing so much divisiveness and hate. His evangelical tone and call to arms is causing this evil to occur. Many times I have asked you Obama supporters to stop the hate. Is this what you really want? Is the how the Obama supporters expect to win an election?

— Lyle Vos
————————————-
So now it’s OBAMA’S fault that this happened? Are you serious? Iguess it was McCain’s fault that some nut job threatened Obama’s life huh?

Boy you Republicans really know how to spin something in your own little minds. And no that’s hating that’s telling the truth!

Anthrax scare, in Denver, same place as the Dem convention in just a few days, same day as McCain would more than love to turn the focus of discussion away from himself. Let’s see, what’s next… An Osama tape? No, that probably isn’t scheduled to come out until the end of October.

To Lyle Vos,
The toxic political environment in America can be traced directly to Lee Atwater, Roger Ailes, Karl Rove and Tom DeLay among others on a very long list of Republican partisan bomb throwers. Anyone who doesn’t know that is either ignorant or depraved.

I doubt this is real, it is just a hoax, I doubt someone really sent anthrax…Even if someone wanted to send anthrax it is just not something that is easy to get ahold of, and the people who have access to it have high level clearences in laborotories, aren’t someone you could just bribe $50 to…

Most of these threats are hoaxes, people just wanting to get their name in the paper….

It isn’t even like something like this could be a threat on McCain…..this guy doesn’t open his own mail, and he isn’t working out of that office…

Read your posts. Do you see the hatred in you. Relax. You are entitled to your opinion as I am to mine. I only ask that you realize what has become of you. The Obama campaign has made you feel angry. You had hatred towards Hillary Clinton and now towards John McCain

We are a single country. We may have different opinions, but we must all get along. I accept that you are entranced by Mr. Obama. There have been other figures in history who have initially engaged the public only later were revealed to be charlatans. I am not saying Obama is a charlatan. I am asking you simply to not follow him as if he is more than a man. He not a great man. He is a simple man.

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